The Worst Columnist in America - NYT's John Tierney

[TomClash]

The US is contemplating the use of nuclear weapons against Iran or North Korea, over 100,000 Iraqis have died in the War, tens of thousands of Americans have been wounded, the War continues in Afghanistan, terrorism has increased and this pompous clown in his suit talks about the end of war. Just another example of how "libertarians" are such dopes.

Give Peace a Chance

By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: May 28, 2005

You would never guess it from the news, but we're living in a peculiarly tranquil world. The new edition of "Peace and Conflict," a biennial global survey being published next week by the University of Maryland, shows that the number and intensity of wars and armed conflicts have fallen once again, continuing a steady 15-year decline that has halved the amount of organized violence around the world.

Those statistics are no solace for mourners in Iraq and Darfur. But so many other people are now living in peace that you don't have be a dreamer like John Lennon to take seriously the question raised by Gregg Easterbrook in this week's New Republic cover story, "The End of War?"

I posed that question nearly a decade ago to my favorite prophet, Julian Simon, the economist who spent his career refuting doomsayers' predictions. He was convinced that three horsemen of the apocalypse - famine, pestilence, death - were in rapid retreat, and he suspected that the fourth was in trouble, too.

"I predict that the incidence of war will decline," he told me in 1996, two years before his death. He based his prediction on the principle that there is less and less to be gained economically from war. As people get richer and smarter, their lives and their knowledge become far more valuable than the land, minerals and natural resources they used to fight over.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/opinion/28tierney.html?oref=login

[stopbush]

1. Happy talk, happy talk! Pay no attention to that war behind the

curtain.

Now, go out and consume products!!

[mcscajun]

2. Sure! Oil and Water aren't worth a thing, so nobody's going to war

anymore.

Which one is the bigger idiot, Julian Simon or John Tierney? Flip a coin to find out.

[megatherium]

4. He's the schmuck who accused environmentalists of

promising solar power and not delivering. That was his column a week or two ago.

[TomClash]

6. This is even worse than that

and that was absurd.

[WilliamPitt]

3. "As people get richer and smarter..."

Egads. Prophet?

Profit.

Who is getting richer again?

[Cocoa]

5. give monkeys flying out of my butt a chance

if you pretend hard enough, you can almost believe it's happening.

[rogerashton]

7. I see nobody is addressing the statistics at all.

Folks, there is a deeper issue here that your knee-jerk "leftie" responses are missing.

First, look at it from a neutral, not an American, point of view. For people who are neither Americans nor fighting Americans, this is a peaceful time. It is true, also, that imperialism doesn't pay. (Tierney says war doesn't pay. True, and it never paid for the losers. But the fact that war doesn't pay even for the victors is a big change.)

Who's getting better off? On the average, worldwide, people have gotten better off over the last generation. The exceptions are Africa and the American working class.

So the real picture here is worse than what knee-jerk "liberalism" projects. There is a trend against war and imperialism and toward higher standards of living -- and this trend is up against one major obstacle: the American ruling class.

If progressives can't think in terms of progress we are giving the fight away to -- guess who? -- that same American ruling class.

[Vladimir]

9. Have they gotten better off though?

I think it depends very much what statistics you use, and how you define 'better off': do you mean the percentage living above some arbitrary threshold, or the gap between richest and poorest, or something else?

[depakid]

8. This guy is an absolute embarrassment

I made the mistake of turning on one of the Sunday talk shows a week or two ago and gas prices were being discussed.

The rest of the panel was fairly cluesless- though they knew it and so didn't say too much out of the ordinary.

But this idoit tkes over the floor and drones on and on aout how rising demand from China and India are no big deal, and that the current "high" gas prices are not a long term problem!

I almost couldn't believe my ears.

The Times wonders why it has a credibility problem- look no further than guy's like John Tierney.

It's not even ideological with that guy, he's just plain, old ashioned stupid!